Norfolk Tides
|
|
The Norfolk Tides are a minor league baseball team, the AAA farm team for the New York Mets. They belong to the International League and are based in Norfolk, Virginia, where they play their home games at Harbor Park.
Franchise History
The franchise began its history in the South Atlantic League in 1961 as the Tidewater Tides, playing at Lawrence Stadium in Portsmouth. The main newspaper of South Hampton Roads, The Virginian-Pilot, ran a contest to determine the team name. Although the chosen name was "Mariners", the Pilot's editor overruled the contest, deciding he liked the alliteration of "Tidewater Tides".
The Tides spent their first year as an "independent" team with no direct major-league affiliation, but became a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate the following season. However, the SAL decided to pull out of Virginia in 1963, threatening the future of minor-league baseball in the Hampton Roads area. A local group was able to convince the Carolina League to expand by two teams, one of them being the Tides.
In 1969, the Tides became a Triple-A team when the New York Mets moved their International League franchise from Jacksonville, Florida to Portsmouth. The previous owners of the Tides continued to run the team under the Mets' ownership. Their first year in Triple-A ended with a pennant. At the same time, the Mets and the city of Norfolk cooperated to build the team's next home, Met Park.
The Tides won the Governors' Cup, the IL championship, in 1972, 1975, 1982, 1983, and 1985. They also had the league's best regular-season record in 1987, but lost in the playoffs. In 1992, ground was broken on the club's current home of Harbor Park, and the Tides moved into the new facility in 1993. This period was a time of change in several other ways. First, in 1992, the Mets sold the franchise to a group led by a Tampa businessman. At the time the Tides moved into Harbor Park, the team also replaced the "Tidewater" in its name with that of Norfolk, partly for marketing reasons and partly for political considerations, as the city of Norfolk had facilitated the financing and building of Harbor Park.
External link
- Norfolk Tides web site (http://www.norfolktides.com/)